Day-oh

Teachers are generally sensitive people, or people people; whatever they are, I'm one of them, and today was a day that made me wonder why. This is unusual because most days I know exactly why I am one. Having been one for about seven years now, I can remember what it was like to work in the world where a vacation was two weeks, three tops, and almost never all at once. So why is it that I now feel like I'd have to quit my job (and quitting my job is something I have NO business doing) if I wasn't four days away from a 10-week respite? Perhaps because it's all relative.

I am remembering some advice given to me by a teacher who was teaching me to teach. She said something like:
Teaching is the most rewarding, exasperating job there is. Sometimes, at the end of a terrible day, all we can do is know we do our best, and leave it at that. And teachers don't get permission to "leave it at that." So, once in awhile, give yourself permission and screw the rest of it.

I've spent the entire evening screwing the rest of it, and it has helped a little.

Or, as my friend Mary told me at around 4 p.m.:
Go home; take a shower and wash off the day.

I took a shower as soon as I got home. I even went so far as to watch the water run off my body and down the drain.

Or, as my friend Nancy said when I was gushing about a wonderful class of creative writers I was teaching:
Enjoy it, Rox. Really enjoy it, because you know it isn't always like this.

I did enjoy it. I only wish I could have bottled it, as I could use about a gallon of that tonic before I put myself to bed tonight.

Let's see if I can manage to end on a lighter note-
Props to teachers and to teaching... with its long summer vacation.